Scribbling machines are motorized contraptions that move in unusual ways and leave a mark to trace their paths. They are made from simple materials and set in motion by a vibrating offset motor causing them to bounce, spin, bump and move in interesting ways
Turn a toothbrush into a robot! BrushBots are easy and fun to build and race. The tiny vibrating motor turns the bristles into thousands of little legs, then they scoot like crazy bugs.
Resources to use with your class as they explore building things that move. If you click the links, there is a sign-in prompt -- but you can bypass the sign-in by clicking the image instead and you will be able to access all the Google slides associated with that image
How does mass affect momentum in a head-on collision? Students explore this question and experience the open-ended engineering design process as if they are the next-generation engineers working on the next big safety feature for passenger vehicles.
Help keep the Fidgits safe during a hurricane or earthquake. You need to design a way to bring emergency supplies to the trapped Fidgits. You'll need to design and build to get to the Fidgits.
This page was developed by a teacher who was competing in the Iditarod. It examines the importance of understanding friction and how it will affect a dogsled on the trail.
This 5-minute video explains shadows, including how the ancients used the sun and shadows as a way to tell time. The video describes an experiment to see how shadows move through the day.
How does our brain understand what we are seeing? Learn about your eyes' lenses, pupils and retinas and how they transmit light to make an image. The diagram shows the key parts of the eye and the blinking dots provide more information.
This page provides a description of the human eye and how the iris and the pupil work. The image labels the parts of the eye with blinking dots; click on any of these dots to access more information.
Resources to use with your students as they explore the workings of light. If you click the links, there is a sign-in prompt -- but you can bypass the sign-in by clicking the image instead and you will be able to access all the Google slides associated with that image
Alfredo Moser's invention, a lamp made out of a plastic bottle filled with water and bleach, has been spreading rapidly around the world and it's expected to be in one million homes by early next year.
When you eat a salad for lunch, you’re digging into a giant pile of plant organs. That’s right—plants are made up of organs, only theirs follow a totally different set of rules from our own.
Plants—they’re just like us! Well, not exactly, but they do have skin and hair. In this video, we’re getting up close and personal with plants’ anatomy.
Today, we’ll find out what botanists study and how knowledge of plants can help you navigate everyday life. Along the way, we’ll uncover plants’ pervasive, civilization-shaping power—and find that they have their own ways of communicating.
Resources to use with your students to explore how plants grow and change. You can bypass the sign-in by clicking the image instead and you will be able to access all the Google slides associated with that image
This video will explain how scientists group organisms (living things) into kingdoms. Check out the karaoke song and the quiz to test your understanding.
This slide show has images of two types of plants without seeds: vascular and non-vascular. Test yourself with the quiz after you've reviewed the slide show.
Can plants talk to each other? It certainly doesn’t seem that way: They don’t have complex sensory or nervous systems, like animals do, and they look pretty passive. But odd as it sounds, plants can communicate with each other — especially when they’re under attack.
closing white waterlily signals that it’s late afternoon. And moon flowers, as their name suggests, only bloom under the night sky. What gives plants this innate sense of time?
This video comes from the American Chemical Society YouTube channel and offers a good description of the chemistry involved in the process of leaves changing color.
This 3 1/2 minute video describes how farmers can use animal poop as energy for their farm. How does the anaerobic digester work to create energy and fertilizer? How can we use human waste as well?
This is an interactive game from the City of Edmonton. Try this waste sorting game - sort the materials correctly and win fun items to build your own digital park!
Resources to use with your class as they explore waste. If you click the links, there is a sign-in prompt -- but you can bypass the sign-in by clicking the image instead and you will be able to access all the Google slides associated with that image
In this game you get to experiment with the settings for a catapult machine. Every time you change the settings, you might be nearer or farther from hitting your target.
In this video, a team of archaeologists and engineers tests a theory of how the ancient peoples of Easter Island moved the massive statues from a cliff-top quarry to the coast and then raised them to an upright position.
Archimedes once said “Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the Earth.” While the idea of a person moving such a huge mass on their own might sound impossible, chances are you’ve seen this idea in action at your local playground.
A Trebuchet is a giant, lever-based catapult. Phil uses it to hurl pumpkins! Mechanical advantage and the history of the trebuchet are what's being tossed your way on this episode - along with a lot of pumpkins, heads up!
Resources to use in the class as students explore wheels and levers. If you click the links, there is a sign-in prompt -- but you can bypass the sign-in by clicking the image instead and you will be able to access all the Google slides associated with that image